Life Is What You Bake It // A Harry Styles AU

Chapter 9 - Term 2, Week 9

Monday

"Lewis?" Hattie calls to him as he passes the table, coming out of the bathrooms.

She, Adele, Eden and Paisley all sit together on a table of four by the supporting column in the middle of the canteen. Ben and Eden had an argument in the middle of the practical session in the morning, so he's gone to sit with the Level 3s across the room while the girls have their lunch.

Lewis pauses, and wanders over to the table with an expectant grin on his face. "S'up?" He asks, placing a hand on the back of Hattie's chair.

"Who made this curry?" She queries, the girls having chosen a large portion with rice to share between them.

He looks to the bowl in the middle of the table with a curious expression. "Which one is it?"

"The beef one." Hattie replies.

"Some of us draw the line at lamb." Eden adds.

The Level 3s must have made their curries in pairs since the other two options were both made with lamb. The beef curry is nice, if a little on the hot side.

"Only you drew the line at lamb." Adele mutters, before shoving in a mouthful.

Eden nudges her with a frown.

"Oh, the beef one was Amy and Charlie. Is it hot?"

"Yep." Paisley says in a slightly choked manner after swallowing her mouthful.

Lewis laughs. "Yeah, one of 'em put too much chilli powder in by accident. Bennison's face went bright red when he tried it - he made them put near a whole pint of milk in it to cool it down."

The girls laugh, mostly at the thought of Bennison struggling to eat anything - he never normally has that problem. And his facial expression is almost always unreadable.

"I think it's nice." Adele shrugs, piling her fork full again.

"That's 'cause you're used to having hot food in your mouth with all that dick you're getting now." Eden says without thinking.

Adele kicks her under the table, her gaze flitting to Lewis quickly. Her cheeks are on fire.

Lewis's brow lifts suggestively with a smirk, and he has a jesting demeanour about him as he places his hands on his hips. "Ooo, gettin' some action are we, Adele?"

She doesn't answer.

"Yeah, keep your mouth shut for us, Lewis." Hattie looks up at him sternly. "The last thing Adele needs is that information coming around to bite her on the arse."

Adele pouts. "Hang on, I'm not ashamed of it."

"Neither should you be, mate." Paisley hums absently.

"I didn't mean it like that." Hattie sighs. "I just know you're quite private and you've got enough shit going on at home without every bastard and his dog prying about your new relationship."

Eden sniggers, her gaze dropping.

"I don't think people are that interested in my life, Hats." Adele laughs.

"Aye, I'm not really one for idle gossip anyway, so you don't need to worry, Adele." Lewis promises with a pressed smile.

"Ha!" Eden scoffs.

He ignores her. "How is your mum, by the way?"

Last week there had been a strange day when it was only Lewis and Adele sat in the canteen at breaktime. While they've never been especially close, it seemed stupid to sit on separate tables when they could surely find something to talk about. Lewis had commented that she seemed tired, which she had been. The night before, Gwen had been struggling with her medication and had spent a lot of time on the bathroom floor throwing half her body weight up into the toilet bowl. It seemed pointless to Adele trying to avoid the subject, so she'd told him all about it.